Boost: Former Conservative party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, pictured, is stepping in to offer financial support to protect dozens of burial plots of soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross

A campaign to repair and preserve hundreds of neglected graves belonging to Britain’s greatest war heroes today receives a major boost.

Former Conservative party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft is stepping in to offer financial support to protect dozens of burial plots of soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross – the most distinguished military honour – and he is urging others to follow suit.

The peer, who has built up a collection of 177 VCs which is on display in London’s Imperial War Museum, said he had been distressed by a report in last week’s Daily Mail revealing how hundreds of graves have become neglected, with crumbling headstones and overgrown plots.

In an article on this page, he says he will provide up to £1,000 per plot to restore the graves of any recipients of the VC whose medals are part of his collection.

Lord Ashcroft’s pledge is a significant step forward for a charity which is campaigning for proper respect and honour to be given to the final resting places of war heroes.

The Victoria Cross Trust has backed calls for VC graves to be given the same status as listed buildings.

And, in the week of Remembrance Sunday, when the nation honours the sacrifice of those who fought for our freedom, an influential think-tank has called for new laws to protect the burial plots.

A policy document by the Bow Group said the Government must act to register heroes’ burial sites and, if families agree, ensure they are looked after and given fitting memorials.

Ministers should also scrap the 75-year limit after which local authorities can dig up the graves if they choose, it says. The proposed cost would be £1.2million a year.

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There are 1,357 VC winners. Troops who were killed on the battlefield during the First and Second World Wars – including 377 VC winners – have their resting places tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The organisation also looks after the graves of nine other soldiers given the ultimate accolade – including Lieutenant Colonel Herbert ‘H’ Jones and Sergeant Ian McKay, both killed in the Falklands, and Corporal Bryan Budd, who lost his life in Afghanistan.

But relatives are responsible for the upkeep of graves of VC winners who died in other conflicts or of old age. Many burial plots have fallen into neglect because family lines dwindle or descendants are unaware they exist or cannot afford to maintain them.

Looked after: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission looks after this grave of Lieutenant Colonel Herbert 'H' Jones killed in the Falklands. But relatives are responsible for the upkeep of graves of VC winners who died in other conflicts or of old age

Lord Ashcroft says he felt ‘great disappointment and distress’ to learn that many of the graves of our war heroes have fallen into disrepair.

Richard Mabey, research secretary of the Bow Group, said: ‘The UK affords no protection for those that did not fall in active service. With a lack of substantive funding, many VC graves may soon crumble or be destroyed.

‘Just as monuments to Karl Marx, Horatio Nelson and Princess Diana are protected by the state, so should those of our military heroes.’

Gary Stapleton, 45, a businessman from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, who started the Victoria Cross Trust after discovering that Lance Corporal Thomas Bryan, who won a VC for attacking a German machine-gun nest during WW1, was buried in a neglected grave in a local cemetery, said he was delighted by Lord Ashcroft’s pledge.

He said his research had uncovered hundreds of examples of graves falling into disrepair. Another 78 are unmarked. Mr Stapleton said: ‘The Victoria Cross Trust has plenty of heroes – it looks like we now have a new champion. Without a shadow of a doubt, Lord Ashcroft’s offer will make a real difference.

‘Just about every single one of these graves needs some work. All should be cleaned annually, so we’re building up a network of volunteers. We need more support and hope people will be inspired to help by what Lord Ashcroft is doing.’

The Victoria Cross is the highest award for gallantry that a British and Commonwealth Serviceman can achieve. It was created in 1856 during the Crimean War.

Courage that defies belief... and why we owe them all a debt of gratitude

By Lord Ashcroft

Help needed: The grave of Israel Harding, pictured, is in need of renovation

Bravery, in general, and the Victoria Cross, in particular, have been two of my greatest passions for more than half a century.

Some of the supreme acts of courage carried out by our servicemen in order to have been awarded the VC – Britain and the Commonwealth’s most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy – simply defy belief.

It was therefore with great disappointment and distress that I read in the Daily Mail at the weekend that many of the graves of our war heroes have fallen into disrepair.

The Highland Road Cemetery in Southsea, Hampshire – the cemetery containing the largest number of graves belonging to our VC heroes – is a case in point, with some headstones unsteady, covered in grime and with their inscriptions barely readable.

The plight of these graves has been highlighted by the Victoria Cross Trust, a charity founded with the honourable aims to maintain memorials and graves commemorating the lives of holders of the VC.

Nearly 1,000 recipients of the VC are buried in churchyards in the UK and it is many of these graves that have fallen into a pitiable state (whereas the Commonwealth War Graves Commission looks after the graves of 386 VC recipients who fell in action abroad).

The concerns of the Victoria Cross Trust have now been reinforced by the findings of the Bow Group, an influential think-tank which has called on the Government to help provide an estimated £1.2million required to survey and restore the graves that have fallen into a state of disrepair.

Over the past three decades, I have championed bravery, building up the largest collection of VCs in the world – now on display to the public at a gallery in the Imperial War Museum in London.

I have also written four books on gallantry: the first, Victoria Cross Heroes, was published to mark the 150th anniversary of the VC being instituted by Queen Victoria in 1856.

I feel protective towards the graves of those 177 men whose VCs are now in my collection. It is for this reason that I am today pledging up to £1,000 per plot to restore any of these specific graves if, for whatever reason, they have fallen into major disrepair.

I hope that my pledge, so soon after Remembrance Sunday, will encourage others, including the Government and concerned groups or individuals, to find the funds to restore every derelict grave of a VC recipient to its former glory.

Crumbling: Israel Harding was buried at Highland Road Cemetery, close to his birthplace, after his death in May 1917, aged 83

Many families of fallen VC heroes have tended the graves of their loved ones for several decades. However, it is often the medal recipients from the 19th century and the First World War whose graves are now in the greatest need of restoration.

Today’s descendants of these recipients may not even be aware of the bravery of yesteryear or the whereabouts of their forebears’ graves.

Until the Daily Mail highlighted the case at the weekend, I was unaware that the grave of one of the VC recipients whose medals I own is apparently in need of renovation.

Israel Harding was a gunner in the Royal Navy when he was awarded the VC in September 1882 for bravery in Egypt. He was serving on HMS Alexandra during the Anglo-Egyptian War when the city of Alexandria was under bombardment from British warships.

During the engagement, a ten-inch shell passed through the ship’s side and lodged on the main deck. Harding, who had been below deck, raced to the scene of the danger as soon as he heard a shout that there was a live shell on board.

Without thinking of his own safety, he picked up the shell and threw it into a tub of water. This prevented the shell from exploding and claiming many lives.

The brave actions of Harding, then 48, were feted by his comrades and he was awarded the VC just two months after the incident.

He was buried at Highland Road Cemetery, close to his birthplace, after his death in May 1917, aged 83.

If my inquiries now reveal that Mr Harding’s descendants are no longer able to care for his grave then, with the blessing of the family or relevant authority, I will make the necessary funding available to carry out restoration work. And I will do the same for other graves belonging to the recipients of medals in my collection if it is shown they have fallen into a state of disrepair.

Graves, like gallantry medals, should be seen as a tangible relic of someone’s courage. They should be considered as a tribute to someone who has risked, and in some cases given his life for his comrades, his sovereign or his country.

As a nation, we owe every VC recipient a debt of gratitude – and also a responsibility to care for that individual’s final resting place for ever more.

Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is a Tory peer, businessmen and philanthropist. His latest book, Heroes of the Skies, is published by Headline. Anyone wishing to help the Victoria Cross Trust, should visit: www.victoriacrosstrust.org